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Toyota 86 Convertible revealedJapanese brand's FT-86 Open Concept shows how a production drop-top version of the 86 could look.

Tada-san, chief engineer for the Toyota 86, told Drive that while there are no plans for a production version "so far", it will be built if there is enough demand. Given the on-going demand for the hard-top that seems like a foregone conclusion.

Speaking via a translator, Tada-san said the car will retain the same sporty character as the coupe model, though it may be slightly more restrained if that's what drop-top buyers prefer.

"I think that what you could expect from this car is that you'd want the same handling, performance and driving taste as the coupe," he said. "But I don't think that's right. We've got to have something separate. If you're driving a convertible you want a different taste to if you're driving the coupe, right?"

Tada-san said work is still ongoing in this regard, and that the expected weight increase that the automatic roof mechanism will bring is still undetermined.

"We're investigating many different ways, so we're trying to decide what's the handling taste that's appropriate for this car, and that will decide how much weight increase there will be for this car," said Tada-san.

"But having said that, we've said that we designed this car from the ground up to have this open top in the first place, so the weight increase won't as much as you would probably expect.

"We're just looking in to what sort of taste, what's the preference that people would have for this car," he said.

Many convertible models suffer from feeling loose, as the body of the car can never be as rigid if the roof is missing. Tada-san said the potential Convertible model would still be stiff, however, because of the way it was designed.

"I think body rigidity should be fine, because what we've done with the coupe - we've already made a design in which the stresses won't accumulate on to the roof. So even if you take the roof off, you'll [still] have plenty of rigidity," he claimed"

There has been much conjecture over whether Subaru would follow suit with a drop-top version of the BRZ - the two coupe models were co-developed and are almost identical, meaning a BRZ Convertible would seem the next logical step for Subaru.